The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to provisioning shared boot images to information handling systems.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an information handling system (IHS). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Some IHSs are diskless (i.e., do not include mass storage devices). A diskless IHS may not include an operating system (OS), and thus the diskless IHS may be required to access a boot image over a network for booting and loading an OS. Typically, each diskless IHS may be provisioned a dedicated disk image. Even if multiple diskless IHSs are booting from the same OS, a separate disk image may be provisioned for each diskless IHS.
This may work well for a small number of diskless IHSs and corresponding provisioned images. However, as the number of diskless IHSs and corresponding provisioned images increase, the complexity of management, maintenance, and servicing of the images may increase exponentially. For example, when new applications or patches need to be added to the images, each image may have to be patched individually.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved system and method to provision shared boot images to information handling systems.